A Simple Game of Chess
by emmarae3579
Summary: NWZ: At the end of Broken Heart, Broken Mask, Victoria kisses her hero. Diego has had to show enormous discipline and self-control since he first donned the mask. How far does that self-control go? Can he make it through a simple game of chess after getting only one taste? No substance, just steam.


Disclaimer: I do not own Zorro, nor do I make any money from writing this story. Dialogue and situations used from the episode are property of ZPI, the rest of the story is my property and cannot be printed or used without my permission.

Author's Note: Here's another short story I jotted out yesterday waiting for my mechanic to fix my car. Picks up from the end of Broken Heart, Broken Mask when Victoria spots Zorro in the garden. Steamy, alpha Diego, but not over the top I hope.

AFTER I wrote the story, someone mentioned Zorro wasn't wearing gloves in the garden. Guess I was not paying attention, cause he's wearing gloves in my story. Since I liked the story and didn't feel like re-writing it because Duncan forgot his wardrobe, please forgive the artistic license.

I also changed the dialogue a bit because…well…because I wanted to.

Dedicated to LaCorelli because she wanted a Broken Heart Broken Mask story. Thanks to LaCorelli and Marla for the beta.

Zzz

"Señor Zorro!" Victoria said, excited when she saw Zorro standing in the shadows.

Zorro stepped forward and stroked her cheek. "You look lovelier than ever."

Victoria smiled. "Thank you, I am feeling much better."

"You shouldn't have stepped in front of that bullet for me. You almost died." Zorro's fist clenched at his side as he remembered the devastating sense of hopelessness he'd felt this week during her recovery.

"You can't say that. I would do it again." Zorro started shaking his head in protest. "Don Diego said you disappeared. It wasn't your fault."

Zorro was happy to see the adoration in her eyes, but Zorro was the reason she'd been shot. She had to let Zorro go. "I've been thinking. You should have a husband."

He saw expectation come into her eyes, and he tried to ignore it. He loved her, but Zorro could not marry her. Diego could, though. Zorro might still be in danger, but they could sever the ties she had to the bandit and make her less of a target. He could plant the idea, at least. "Someone like Diego, perhaps."

Victoria's eyes widened. "Like Diego?" She shook her head, confused that the man she loved was offering her to someone else.

"Don't you like Diego?"

"I thought…I thought we shared certain feelings." Zorro touched her face lightly, but took his hand away after only a second. Zorro had to let her go.

"We do, Querida. But Diego could give you a family. The alcalde abuses you because he knows of my feelings. Today you were shot. Next time you might not survive, and that would devastate me. I'd prefer you alive with someone else rather than dead or miserable because you waited for me."

"You said you had feelings. Now you're just going to ignore them?"

Zorro couldn't resist wiping at one of the tears which fell down her cheek. "I could never ignore them. You have my heart, you always will."

Victoria didn't like what he was saying. Didn't want to talk anymore. She stepped into him, and before he could back away in surprise she grabbed his head and pulled him down for a kiss. She pressed her mouth to his, felt his lips soften against hers, but he didn't move. Was she doing it wrong? She wanted to know his taste, so her lips pulled at one of his, pulling his mouth closer so she could taste him with her tongue.

That got his attention. Zorro's arms came around her, lifting her against his body as she felt his self-control snap. She smiled against his lips, and Zorro's tongue slowly showed her everything a kiss was meant to be. He tasted like the wine she'd had at dinner, and it thrilled her that they shared something so normal as a dinner wine. She wanted to share everything with him, and her arms wrapped around his neck to hold him close. The heat from his body made her gasp into his mouth, and she felt tingles settle in her stomach and shoot through her entire body.

"Diego!"

Victoria jumped and pulled away as they heard Alejandro calling for Diego from inside the house. Zorro's lips lingered even as he told himself to let her go, to run away and hide. He concentrated on withdrawing his hands, not on the soft body he'd just had pressed against him. He felt cold and alone without her in his arms and wanted to shout at his father to give him another minute. Another hour.

Victoria smiled at Zorro's stunned expression, even as she blushed after being so forward. He didn't look like he minded, though. She must not have done too badly, since the man was still breathing hard and looked unable to speak.

Zorro looked over his shoulder as he heard his father call again, but he had to touch her. Then he'd let her go. He furiously yanked at his glove, then brought his bare hand up to touch her cheek. Dios, her skin was soft. And hot. His thumb brushed over her swollen lips, and he wondered how on earth he'd ever be able to walk away.

Alejandro's voice was close now, and he knew he had to leave. "I must go." Victoria took his hand in both of hers and kissed it, and Zorro's fingers once again ran over her lips. "I must go." Finally he heard footsteps and he made himself move. He climbed the wall quickly, but stopped to look down at her as his father came into the garden. She'd opened her fan and was fanning herself furiously. Zorro smiled. She'd given him a gift tonight. He reached up and removed his mask, dropping it where he hoped she'd find it and not his father.

He had to go change clothes. She might not kiss Diego, but they'd still be spending the rest of the evening together. He shouldn't waste time just staring at her.

"Ah, Victoria, good evening. Have you seen Diego?" Alejandro asked as he finally came into the garden.

Victoria worked to calm her breathing. "No, I…haven't," Victoria answered.

Diego indeed. Zorro wanted her to marry Diego? She hoped she'd changed his mind. Diego probably would have run away if she'd kissed him. Zorro, though… He knew how to kiss. He made her come alive. She couldn't wait to see him again. Maybe he'd kiss her next time.

"Ah, I guess he's gone to bed. Well…Victoria, are you alright?" Victoria put a hand to her face to cool off when she heard her name, and she took a moment to remember what he'd asked her.

"Oh… I am feeling a bit warm." She smiled at Alejandro to keep him from thinking anything was wrong. Don Alejandro was like a father to her, if he knew she'd just kissed a man in his garden, she'd never hear the end of it.

"Well, I think you should get some rest. Come sit down and read awhile. You mustn't overdo it."

"Ok, I'll be there in just a moment." Victoria watched Alejandro walk back into the house and she quickly searched the garden, but her masked hero was gone. She found the mask, draped over a wall of roses. A token of his feelings? A promise that one day he'd show her the man behind the mask? She held it to her face for a brief moment before quickly hiding it. She'd treasure it forever, until he was able to remove the mask and declare his feelings in the open.

She rushed after Alejandro and had caught up to him by the time he entered the library.

"Diego, I thought you'd gone to bed?" Alejandro asked when he found his son pacing the room. His son looked agitated, though, and not sleepy at all.

Diego's eyes glanced over his father and lingered on Victoria before looking back down at a piece of wood in his hand. "I couldn't sleep."

Victoria thought she'd never fall asleep tonight. She knew a cure, though. "Don Diego, maybe we could play chess again?" The game bored her to tears.

Diego glanced at the unfinished woodcarving he'd grabbed as he raced into the library, at the sharp knife he held in his hand. Chess was probably safer right now. He was so distracted by that kiss he'd probably chop off his finger if he tried to carve.

Still, he eyed Victoria with suspicion. "I thought you didn't like playing chess."

Victoria's eyes were bright as she took a deep breath and exhaled, and Diego barely heard what she said. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep for a long time. It will be a good way to pass the time. Maybe if I practice, I will learn how to beat you." Maybe carving was safer with her smiling like that, but he'd take the chance to sit close to her with only a chessboard between them.

Diego promised himself he'd give her as many chess lessons as she wanted. He wouldn't let her beat him, though, because then she'd stop playing with him. He took a seat across from her but kept his woodworking as a distraction. If he concentrated on the totem he was trying to draw out of the wood, he'd forget that her legs were probably inches away from his. He wouldn't try to shuffle his feet to brush against her accidentally.

Victoria was concentrating quite hard on the game, and Diego started to doubt she'd been affected by the kiss at all. He frowned and his knife dug too far into the wood. He concentrated briefly on smoothing away the mistake, but then he looked at her again. She touched her face as she pondered the board, and Diego's fingers still tingled from where they'd touched her soft skin. She placed a finger against her lips and he wondered if she knew how enticing she was. Then she placed a pawn in jeopardy with that same finger, and he had to capture that pawn. He stroked his finger over the piece before he set it aside, imagining he was touching her lip.

"Check," Victoria said triumphantly a moment later, as he'd left himself open because he'd been jealous of a pawn. Diego's eyes widened as he realized his mistake, but she was distracting him.

Alejandro cheered her first 'check' and eyed his son suspiciously.

Diego moved his king and stared in surprise as her smile only dimmed a little as she concentrated on her next move. Once again her fingers came up to her lips as she examined the board. Her focus told Diego she was trying to beat him, but the way she stroked her lips made him hope she was still thinking about their kiss.

She licked her lips, oblivious to Diego's attention, then sucked a lip into her mouth while she concentrated before releasing it and placing him in check again. Now her lips were both shiny, her smile dazzling, and Diego's breath caught. The knife slipped and stabbed into his left hand, but it took a moment for the pain to penetrate.

Alejandro saw Diego cut himself and put his book down to stare at his son in shock. It must be minor, though, since Diego wasn't reacting. Seemed Diego had a crush, and Victoria was oblivious. He smiled and rested his head on his hand, eager to enjoy the show. When he saw blood start to spread on Diego's pants leg, Alejandro stood. Diego was always in another world, and he was happy the man was showing interest in a woman because the man needed a keeper.

Just as Alejandro called his name, Diego looked down at his hand and the blood dripping from the stab wound in his palm. He laughed over the pain, thinking finally Diego had injured himself for real. His father would think this was just one more clumsy injury, but he didn't know most of Diego's illnesses were fake, and his injuries were Zorro's.

Everyone stood at once, and Diego was disappointed his father reached his hand first. Victoria looked ready to render first aid, but he couldn't very well pull his hand away from his father and give it to Victoria. Unless…

"Father, it's nothing. Could you please go get the first aid kit?" Alejandro rushed off, and sure enough, Victoria took his hand. She pressed the cloth Alejandro had used against the wound, and Diego didn't feel the pain anymore. Her face was so close, he could reach up and stroke her cheek again. His left hand was jealous it hadn't touched Victoria's face, and itched to stretch out and see if she'd blush.

Victoria held up his hand and used the edges of the cloth to wipe the blood from his fingers. Then she did the unthinkable. She lifted his fingers to her lips, murmuring assurances he couldn't hear over the blood rushing through his body. Now both of his hands had touched her beautiful lips. Her hands were wrapped around his, just as she'd kissed his other hand moments ago in the garden.

"Victoria, you drive a man to distraction." Diego's voice was gritty, as if it took a great effort to speak.

Victoria stood up straight to look him in the eye. "What?"

"You can't go around kissing men!"

Victoria blushed and let go of his hand as if it burned her. "What?"

Diego's hand hadn't moved, still stretched out to her. Then it did move, reaching up to caress her cheek only briefly before she stepped back. "You were spying on us? What are you talking about?" Victoria's face flushed in embarrassment and anger, but that only made her more beautiful to him.

Diego's eyes were on her lips as he took a step closer for every step she took back. He no longer cared. She could share his secret or Zorro would never be seen again. The only impossibility was going another second without kissing her. Her back hit the mantle above the fireplace and Diego placed his hands on it, caging her in.

"You should only kiss the man you're going to marry. Because your kisses are addictive. The man won't be able to think of anything else except when he can kiss you again."

"Don Diego, I'm sorry, but I only kissed your hand because…" Why had she kissed his hand? Victoria's heart was racing at the way Diego was looking at her mouth. Maybe Diego wouldn't run away from a kiss after all.

She glanced at the arms blocking her escape, and when she raised her eyes to his again Diego's mouth came down on hers. The barest touch at first, but when she started to speak he cradled her face in his hands and deepened it, driving words from her mind. Oh, Diego knew how to kiss, too.

She pushed at his chest when her brain started working again. "Diego—" Her voice squeaked and she tried again, but Alejandro's voice interrupted from a few rooms away.

"Diego, I can't find that salve you said to use for cuts!"

Diego examined her face, grimaced at the confusion and worry he saw. He was doing this all wrong. Diego thought about the salve, which he'd taken out of the house first-aid kit when Zorro had run out. It was twenty feet behind the fireplace.

"I'll get it, don't worry about it!" He shouted back at his father and took a step away from Victoria. She started to skitter away, but he grabbed her hand as he pushed the button in the mantle. He didn't give her time to think as he pulled her behind him into Zorro's cave.

He wanted to stop and push her against the door, but nothing about the entrance revealed his identity. She was no longer protesting, obviously in shock, so he pulled her further into his hideout, further away from possible interruptions. When the cave opened up and her eyes widened at the sight of Zorro's clothes, he found the nearest empty wall and backed her into it.

"I wasn't spying on you." His arms caged her in, his eyes fell to the pulse beating fast in her throat. His voice was dark and husky, and it was doing strange things to her insides. "I told myself to let you go. I almost got you killed. But I'm selfish. You deserve better, but I want you as my wife. Nothing else matters except that I'll die if I don't kiss you again."

Diego didn't want to give her a chance to reject him. The best defense was a good offense. His mouth covered hers once more, his tongue plunging in to taste the wine they'd drunk over dinner and something deeper, something essentially Victoria.

Her hands came up to barely touch his chest. They hovered, unsure, in the space he forced himself to keep between their bodies. His arms shook with the effort to press against the wall, then gave as his arms bent, now only his elbows keeping him from pressing their bodies together. The move brought her hands to his chest again, and this time they didn't move away.

He gentled the kiss, kissing her lips and willing her to relax under his onslaught. He didn't want to scare her, didn't mean to dump all this on her so quickly. But she'd been teasing him through a long game of chess. Something inside had snapped, and once again his tongue sought hers in the sensual dance she'd begun innocently in his garden.

His elbows slid down the wall, as if that still maintained the proper distance, but now he could touch her hair. When she made a tiny whimper of pleasure, his hands left the wall to cradle her face, her neck, and finally he wrapped his arms around her. His tongue slid against hers, and all brain function melted at the heat he felt from her body, at the taste he was now so addicted to.

He made himself pull away when she finally did press against his chest, slowly forcing his hands back to the wall and forcing his body away from her to give her space. She was flushed and breathing heavily, and he wondered what he looked like to her. If she could see her hero in the ordinary man.

"Querida, I love you. I didn't plan any of this. But…" Diego's hand stroked over her hair, down her smooth cheek to her neck. His thumb traced over her lips again, just as Zorro had done. "Marry me. If being married to Zorro scares you, Zorro won't ride again. My father and I will work to get the alcalde thrown out of office."

Victoria glanced to her right again, where Zorro's hat and clothes hung haphazardly. She heard Alejandro call their names through the wall, and Diego hung his head. His arms still caged her in, as if it were a great effort to keep his hands on the wall instead of on her. She still couldn't catch her breath with him standing so close. Diego stepped back when he heard a thud, and they turned to see a familiar black stallion poke his head around a corner of the cave.

Diego took her hand again and lead her to the stallion's stall, introducing them so formally Victoria had to laugh. Diego's left hand came up to stroke the stallion's neck and she saw the bloody towel wrapped around his untended wound.

"Diego, your hand."

"It's fine." Diego glanced at it, peeked under the towel as he became aware of the pain again. He could tell she was calming down, sought out something else to say to put her at ease. "I can't believe I let you put me in check."

Victoria leaned against a post on Toronado's stall as she watched him stroke the stallion she'd seen rescue her hero so often. Diego de la Vega was certainly full of surprises. "So…I was distracting you?" Victoria asked with a small grin and a deep blush.

"Ahhh… Querida…" Diego stepped closer and put his wounded hand on the post above her head, his other hand going to her waist to pull her to him. "If you only knew the battle it was every time I saw you to only kiss your hand."

Victoria reached up to straighten the collar on his jacket and brushed at a spec of nothing on its lapel. "Good. Because you drove me crazy."

"Think how it will be when we are married," Diego whispered against her lips right before he captured them again in a gentle kiss.

Victoria pushed him away again. "That's not what I meant," she whispered, though her breathing was choppy and she looked just as affected as he was.

Diego was glad when she let him pull her into his arms. "Zorro should have never said anything to you, I'm sorry. It's hard to keep everything hidden all the time. I thought Zorro could love you from a distance until he could disappear." He pulled her back so he could look into her eyes again. "I'm not satisfied with distance anymore."

"No kidding."

Alejandro called again and Diego looked back to the cave entrance before he started to lead her that way. "Want to go scare my father?"

"He doesn't know?"

Diego shook his head and shrugged. "Maybe he'll forgive me for being Zorro if I tell him I'm getting married." He stopped and she bumped into his shoulder. "You are going to marry me, right?"

"I guess I have to. I know all your secrets now," Victoria smiled.

Diego made sure to stop at the desk to grab the salve for his now throbbing hand, and for once walked out of the cave without checking the hole.

Alejandro dropped the box he was holding when he turned around to find Diego and Victoria emerging from the fireplace. Diego grinned, happiness settling over him. He tossed the jar of salve at his father. "Sorry, Father. Zorro had to borrow it."

Alejandro bumbled the jar for a moment before catching it, and he glanced from his son to the fireplace in confusion. He saw Victoria, looking rather flushed and embarrassed, clutching Diego's arm, and he smiled.

Whatever was going on, he was definitely getting grandchildren soon.

The End

zzz

Hope you liked it, hope you review if it made you smile.


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